OAUTH Laments Sharp Decline In Staff Strength

THE management of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State, has lamented the decline in number of medical staff available in the hospital.

The sharp decline, as gathered by OSUN DEFENDER, is owing to the exodus of medical practitioners from the country. 

Speaking on how the hospital has been coping, the Chief Medical Director, of OAUTHC Prof John Okeniyi, said the location of the institution has been instrumental to its continuous operation despite worsening brain-drain in the health sector.

Okeniyi, in an interview recently, stated that the loss of staff to the ‘Japa’ syndrome (movement of Nigerian professionals abroad), has been impacting the hospital negatively.

The CMD explained that the hospital has been coping because it is not located in a cosmopolitan city.

He noted that the remaining doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers at the medical centre were not being distracted when compared to their colleagues in other cities, leading to willingness to endure the condition of the system.

According to him, “We are trying our best here in Ife; people are less distracted unlike those in more urban places like Lagos, Abuja. Despite the ‘Japa’ syndrome, those who are here are still more committed. 

“We make jokes that all they do is go to work, and maybe church and mosque. We don’t have malls, we don’t have distractions. So, our location is a strength to OAUTHC. ‘Japa’ is a national, in fact, international syndrome.

“But here we are, we are better positioned to address this issue. We have a core area of strength and we are able to meet those things and we still meet up with our cardiac programme, the HIV programme, the other programme in surgery. 

“If we are able to maintain these services, we will still be able to give tertiary care to Nigeria and core areas and the government should assist us with staff.”